Zimbabwe's elephants 'poisoned by dissatisfied rangers'

Sources suggest that some of the more than 60 elephants poisoned in the past
month might have been poisoned by disgrunted and cash-strapped rangers

File photo: an elephant crosses the road in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. At least 62 elephants have died from cyanide hidden in salt licks and oranges in Zimbabwe in the past month alonePhoto: AP

6:45PM GMT 27 Oct 2015

Elephants are being poisoned around Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park by disgruntled and cash-strapped rangers protesting over senior management pay, conservation sources have told The Telegraph.

"They are angry because of lack of allowances...Some of them believe they should be getting allowances and they are not, but some senior management are getting allowances unfairly"

Headman Sibanda, a well-known hunter

At least 62 elephants have died from cyanide hidden in salt licks and oranges in Zimbabwe in the past month alone. In the latest episode, in Sinamatella area of the northwestern park, rangers discovered the bodies of 22 elephants this week.

Only four tusks were taken from the latest to be killed, suggesting the poachers were either disturbed or there was another reason the elephants were poisoned, sources say.

When 26 elephants were killed earlier in the month, only seven tusks were taken – although wildlife officials point out that among the victims were those still too young to have grown them.

They believe that some of the poisoning was done by rangers who risk their lives regularly to combat often heavily-armed poachers but are paid badly and erratically by the national body for wildlife.

An elephant crosses the road in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe Photo: AP

Zimbabwe’s National Parks and Wildlife Authority (Zimparks) receives no funding from government and survives almost entirely on income from tourists and hunters. That income has been in steep decline since the US banned the import of elephant trophies from hunts in Zimbabwe in 2014, citing concerns over its sustainability.

Zimbabwe’s environment minister warned recently that with scarce resources to tackle them, the country will lose the war on poachers without international help.

Although at present Hwange is well-stocked with elephants, across Africa the population is in steep decline, with 100,000 elephants killed in Africa from 2011 to 2013, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Today, there are fewer than 500,000 on the continent.

Many Zimparks staff have only recently received the wages that were due to them in September and the body has this week failed to pay for diesel to run the pumps that supply drought-hit Hwange with watering holes for its wildlife.

One of two rangers recently arrested on suspicion of poisoning elephants earns just £280 a month, including allowances. A single elephant can yield 10kg of ivory with a market value of around £19,000.

A source close to Zimparks told The Telegraph that as well as resorting to poaching, rangers might simply be poisoning elephants as a form of “protest”.

"I am afraid there are serious management problems within parks,” he said. “Some of the rangers are very dissatisfied with their remuneration and say that they are not getting some allowances they believe they should get. But they know that management in Harare do get these allowances, such as help with school fees for their kids.

"So many of us believe that some of the poaching at the moment is organised and executed by some rangers in parks, and we don't know how this will be sorted out."

Headman Sibanda, a well-known hunter operating in the area who was charged with allowing an American doctor to conduct an illegal hunt in the wake of the furore over Cecil the Lion's death, agreed that some rangers were involved in the spate of poisonings.

"They are angry because of lack of allowances,” he said. “Some of them believe they should be getting allowances and they are not, but some senior management are getting allowances unfairly."

Zimparks and police believe the cyanide used to poison the elephants comes from illegal gold miners operating in the area. The method of killing in particularly devastating as it has a knock-on effect on other animals that use the same watering holes and salt licks, and feed on the elephants’ carcasses.

Colin Gilles, a local elephant counter, said if rangers were not involved, they were turning a blind eye.

“We counted elephants in Hwange National Park in September and days after we finished the first poisoning in the park was discovered just eight kilometres (five miles) from the Main Camp (where Hwange rangers are headquartered),” he said. “This is not a remote part of the camp.”

Caroline Washaya-Moyo, the Zimparks spokesman, said the surge in poisonings was “alarming”.

Asked whether rangers were poisoning the elephants in protest at their poor earnings, she pointed to recent arrests of wildlife staff.

"This is a very emotionally draining and tragic time for all of us in parks,” she said. “There is zero tolerance for this crime and are totally committed to preserving our wildlife."